John O'Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher. His book Anam Ċara, Gaelic for "soul friend" (paperback, 1998) has been very well received and I too have found it very helpful. O'Donohue insists on beauty as a human calling. John was a Roman Catholic priest who trained at the seminary at Maynooth, Ireland. He left that calling, married, and continued the writing and speaking ministry which has helped so many. He died suddenly in 2008, only in his early fifties. His passing is a very great loss.

In an interview shortly before his death, John spoke of the Celtic imagination which so gripped his own thinking, pointing out that for the Irish, and many of us who agree, the material and the spiritual world are closely intertwinted, the visible and the invisible in all of human experience.

His wise writings and voice still give wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the midst of our confused world with the inner longings we share. The Inner Landscape of Beauty - why not explore it with John O'Donohue and then in your own Journey with friends and, I hope, a soul friend.